Vermont Law School COP21/CMP11

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Climate Finance and Capacity Building

To stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and limit temperatures to no more than 2° C above 1990 global temperature, it is necessary to set clear goals for emissions reduction looking towards 2020. Those goals have been confirmed in the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which highlight the need for urgent action. In the first two days at the COP’20, the constraint of capacity building and finance has been repeated over and over.

In the opening speeches of the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC and the President of the COP, as well as in special and site events, the issue of enhancing the ability of individuals, organizations and institutions to identify, plan and implement ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change, has had special protagonism. It is necessary to generate more funding sources, but as important, is coordinating strategies between mechanisms already created, such as defining criteria for monitoring systems that allow for credible measurement, reporting and verification (MRV). In other words, establishing a legal MRV framework to track compliance guarantees that a “ton is always a ton.”

Discussions on capacity building must motivate rethinking of finance priorities, enhance more efficient uses of resources to reduce emissions and vulnerability, and increase adaptation measures. Capacity building in relation to funding takes place primarily on institutional and systematic levels. In this sense, the process of implementing adaptation and mitigation actions under the UNFCCC must be simultaneously framed in national actions. Furthermore, countries should undertake “readinness” in the context of the process, which involves the preparation of institutions, legal frameworks and public policies to make better use of financial resources. This will allow more assertive assessments of financial needs, which should have a balance with the budgetary allocation of countries.